Smash Pot Day

Swinging the hammer of judgment is one of the most anticipated yearly studio activities for a lot of potters.

Some artists choose to just swing the hammer all year round, but I prefer to save up all of the messed up pots, setting them in the nooks and crannies of the firing room and garden.

I save them for a special day… SMASH POT DAY!

I traditionally save this special day for the end of the year, but I really can hardly wait to swing the hammer on this year’s accumulated ware. A lot of these pieces are gorgeous, but they have one flaw or another… a crack, a stuck lid, a glaze that ran off, kiln wash fired into the surface, the list goes on and on.

This is a ritual of necessity, ensuring the quality of any studio’s line-up. This year I’m happy to say I’m letting go a 140 pounds of fired work. DOH!

“Smash it up and plan for the next year”… that’s my motto.

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Winter Vines Cairn

This is the second in the series for this springs first round of works for regional exhibitions. It’s still got 2 weeks of drying to do before bisque firing and glazing. 2 cairns down, and 2 to go.

Meet My Studio Photographer

This is Andor. He’s the studio photographer for FetishGhost and is working on learning to make good use of the support software needed to build and run an online storefront. A lot of what you see on this blog, he’s helped produce.

I first drafted him to snap a few shots in the summer of 07. It was just something to keep him busy while school was out, but since then he’s become an valuable asset to the studio, taking on the duties to help coordinate the shooting of demos and product shots.

OK, before everybody starts pestering me for his business card, I’ve got to point out he’s just turned 10 last month. and my wife won’t let me rent him out yet.

Mixing Up A Simple Slip

Making a super simple slip starts with collecting up some of your trimming scraps from your current white bodied clay. You don’t really need much… 300 grams is a good single batch amount to play with for starters. Multiply that by whatever number you might have in mind to experiment with other oxides and stain mixes.
Here comes the fun part… my kids joyously referred to this particular chore as “let’s whack Daddy!” They volunteer for it every time and quite frankly, it’s got me rather nervous, but it’s got to be done so get whackn!

For this chore I use an old pair of blue jeans, (I know you were saving a pair for something like this). Just load up a leg with a manageable amount. You’ll figure out how much is enough pretty quick. Special note, if you pack it too full your crotch will pop… really messy.
Now grab your trusty small hand sledge and just lightly pound the hell out of it. Like I said, my kids think this is hilarious.

 

This is still pretty chunky, but it’ll work just fine.

At this point I feel I should point out another advantage of using crushed clay to make your mix… it’s a lot easier to get an accurate weight ratio of clay to colorant you’ll need.

I like strong colors, so I multiply the weight of my crushed clay by 5% to 10% to get the weight needed for my oxide colorant. Commercial stains seem to like the 10% to 15% ranges. It’s really up to you how strong you like your colors. This is where you get out those test tiles and experiment.

Slowly add your crushed clay and oxide mix to the water. Keep at it, slowly building up an island in the center. The island will subside below the waterline as it pulls water into the mix. Keep adding your crushed clay mix until it all in there. Kind of give the tub a small shake to collapse the island one last time, and let the mix slake overnight. In the morning, just pour off the excess water and stir well and “Voila!” A simple slip.

Winter Cairns

All right… it’s started moving into the “it’s really cold, wet, and rainy” time of year for my studio. This is still Northern California so the temperature, at its best, generally is topped out in the middle of the day at 55 degrees, (and I count myself really lucky it’s this warm). This is the down side to working in an old Garagio. It really is cold… and work takes many, many days to dry, and sometimes… things freeze! So aside from the bit about things freezing, things are fairly manageable… I can boil water for my throwing bucket to keep myself warm… (that’s really nice….) the slow drying can be an inconvenience if you’ve got small work trying to dry, but it’s really nice if you have larger thick walled projects that appreciate being slow dried.

Or…. you can see if your friends will let you hang out in a spot in their toasty warm studios during the winter cold snaps. I like this option… they’ve got better hot chocolate, and… oh yeah… heating. Being a decent guest you might be expected to do a little wedging, maybe some trimming, definitely some story telling…. It’s all about that winter camaraderie thing.
So I’ve been spending to past week getting started on creating a series of Cairns for this spring’s exhibitions. These are large(ish) decorative ceramic post markers, and due to their size and complexity, they can be tricky to get across the finish line in a stately manner… (Understatement). Luckily, they really like to be slow dried and they make use of a lot of the techniques I’ve been playing with this year.

For me, these forms provide a more sculptural surface for developing more complex narratives and they also provide a glorified test tile for exploring studio archenemy. This could get really fun… we’ll see… I’m hoping to pick through the results of this winters work and gallery mount a few finished pieces for spring’s and summer’s exhibitions. I guess we’ll have to see…

This is the cobalt slip…

and a view of cutting the stencils with a razor blade.

This is the proposed slip & glaze combo I’m planning to use… it’s a cobalt slip and MoonCrater White glaze.

Working through the form….

Applying the stencils & sponging on the slip…

 

 

All most there…

Hallmarked and now we let it dry S-L-O-W-L-Y…